Drone Footage Shows Massive Mumbai-Pune Expressway Traffic Jam

A serious accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway caused a major traffic disruption lasting more than 31 hours. On Tuesday (Feb 3) evening, a tanker carrying propylene gas overturned in the Khandala Ghat section near the Adoshi Tunnel. Drone footage captured the full extent of the resulting congestion with the three-lane highway packed solid with vehicles stretching for 20-30 km in places. Commuters reported being stuck for many hours, some overnight, without access to food, water or other facilities. State transport buses were halted, and the supply of essentials such as milk and vegetables was delayed. The now-viral clip shows lines of cars, buses, and heavy trucks forming near-stationary queues, with bumper-to-bumper traffic, around the hilly terrain. After the tanker overturned, the police immediately closed traffic towards Mumbai and diverted vehicles to the Pune-bound side. Despite this, normal movement could not be restored due to the continuous gas leak from the tanker, resulting in long queues and crawling traffic even for Pune-bound motorists. Eventually, the gas tanker was removed at 1:30 AM on Thursday (Feb 5), and some normalcy returned on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.